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Aion Mods ([personal profile] aionmods) wrote in [community profile] aionooc2022-07-30 12:18 pm
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TDM #3

TDM #3
DREAMING (new characters)
At first, there is nothing. You are nothing. Whatever existed before ceases to be if for a moment. Then, bit by bit, you start to become aware. Where there was not even darkness now is a dim haze, gentle and almost mist-like. You have limbs again and beneath your feet lays a path of light reaching out like limbs of a great tree beneath you, twisting and climbing out into the horizon.

You take a step forward for what else is there to do? As you walk you begin to remember what it was you were doing before the nothingness; maybe something as simple as chatting with a loved one or close friend. Maybe you were just beginning a great journey or facing off against an old foe. Whatever it was, you get the distinct feeling that wherever and whenever that was, it is not here. Not now.

The path of light twists off into different directions. When you look up you can see that it is not a sky above you but the sky of everything, a grand cosmic tapestry littered with not mere stars but galaxies and clusters of galaxies that gleam like crystals against the velvety backdrop of space. Admire it for a moment, if you will. You don't know how long you will drift here, but you are not alone. Other wanderers will come and go as you bask together in the vastness of creation.

It seems to you that there are two paths to walk in this place, the light and dark beckoning in turn.

THE LIGHT AT THE CENTER
One leads you to the center, splintered fragments folding together and colliding until only one thing remains: a light that speaks to you with the voice of all there is and has ever been. It greets you simultaneously as an old friend and as a lost child, both rejoicing in and mourning your arrival. You remember it too, somehow, with a feeling of complex nostalgia, as if returning to a place recalled from your distant childhood.

You’ll feel the same of the other wanderers that join you in the light; you know their faces, their voices, and as you reflect upon the world of your birth, you may witness fragments of theirs as well. You feel a comradery, then, a synchronicity of thought and emotion. Are the lives of others truly so different from your own? Or are you simply two hands of the same, greater being? Though some individualistic part of you may resist, the longer you spend in the light, the more you will find yourself becoming one with it.

Despite this welcoming call, no matter how eagerly your pursue its embrace, before you can fully submerge yourself in this oneness you will find yourself being torn away. As if seized by the impossibly long, cold arm of a creature unseen, you are plucked from the edge of fulfillment. The last thing you will remember is the sensation of your world, and all the others your experienced here, collapsing into nothingness.

THE DARK OUTSIDE (CW: deep despair, ego death)
The other leads towards the outside, where the splintering becomes so great that the vestiges of reality can do nothing but collapse back into the abyss at the end of everything. As you wander to these barren outskirts, your thoughts will not be drawn to familiarity and oneness, but instead to memories of discontent and waste. The darker the path becomes, the more you find yourself dwelling on life’s disappointments and injustices, of the things about yourself and your world you find wanting.

If you see others here, at first they will feel frightening or contemptible, as if representing to you the worst experiences in your life. Even if they are someone you’re certain you know, that familiarity and affection will be stripped away in the face of the great emptiness before you. In the end, you were all the same. In the end, none of this was worth it. If you approach the end together, you may even form a kind of kinship around this acknowledgment, as the need for paranoia and hatred fades.

Slowly, the darkness encroaches, and you can see it devouring all the things you once knew. Memories of your home, of those you loved, dissolve into nothing, and you can only reflect on the barren emptiness in your heart as you see it happen. In your final moments, though, you feel peace with it all, knowing that there was no other way. You step from the edge of the last dwindling fragment of being and are greeted by silence.

THE END
No matter which way you go, you are left with a single impression: you feel the world you came from die. It's a realization that transcends logic or sense; it weighs on your heart and leaves the vestiges of dark memories dancing in your thoughts like motes of ash. It's a memory of your home crumbling away into nothing as if consumed from within by rot. Returned to the void, all that's left to you is to be reborn.

REBIRTH (new characters)
In a new time and place, you awaken. Stirring within a capsule of warmth and isolation your senses will slowly return, only to observe that you are trapped. Your body, as it wakes, is tangled in close, yours eyes unable to open, as if still within the womb. You are held tight in the embrace of something unyielding, so smothering that at first you only have the strength to struggle for moments at a time. Yet, as you persist, the pressure begins to relent in turn; it may take hours, but eventually you will find the purchase to push, to claw, to fight, and it will all give way.

The chrysalis surrounding you bends like flesh and cracks like glass. It tears as you force your fingers through, finding liberation one inch at a time, until finally you have emerged. As if having undergone metamorphosis, you feel old and new all at once. You are weak, piteously so, but the markings and scars of your previous life remain. As you slump down upon the smooth cavern stone, you realize that you've just wrenched yourself free of gigantic crystal, though its hollow, shimmering form is now in pieces on account of your passing. Somewhere on your body, a shard of similar material remains embedded.

The cave itself looks almost like the inside of a geode, the walls and ceiling bedazzled with greyish crystal that shines with all the colors of the rainbow. While they vary wildly in size and shape, only a few have grown large enough to hold a form like yours, and you can see the one you just escaped isn't the only one bearing a passenger within. They may have already hatched, or they may still be lingering in stasis. Either way, there's enough time that you may have a chance to speak to yours unexpected peers, or to perhaps to struggle to find something to cover your naked body with. You feel the chill of the open air against your moisture laden skin, a distant light trickling in through the cavern's opening.

Make the most of this time. It won't be long before you're interrupted.

[Mod Note: If you don't want to deal with your character being naked in front of the others at that location, feel free to assume they emerge at a different time than the others of their legacy. Characters will be 'hatching' over a period of several hours.]

DREAMING (OLD CHARACTERS)
For those already in Horos, they will find themselves in the same dreamscape as the new arrivals, only, this time, it's familiar. You'll feel more cognizant of your surroundings as you reawaken in this psychedelic realm, more in control of your emotions. What's more, you recognize that light at the center and the darkness at the edge: it's the Pleroma and Kenoma respectively. The one you are attuned to will call our to your soul, and though you are technically free to wander as you please, the closer you get to the force of your opposite sect, the more it will grate against you spiritually. Pleroma attuned nearing the Kenoma will feel as if its presence is desperately trying to tear them apart, and Kenoma attuned nearing the Pleroma will feel as if its light is burning them from the inside out.

More importantly, you notice that entirely new souls are wandering here with faces you didn't see in the cavern. It gradually becomes clear that they are Aions in the same state you were prior to your rebirth, lost and wandering this stretch of the cosmos with no idea what's to come. Maybe this is your chance to ease the confusion of their arrival, or maybe you'd simply like to scope out what kind of people are on their way. It's also possible for you to run into Aions already in Horos, wandering just like you are. Unfortunately, things are a lot less neutral than they are the last time you shared this realm.

No matter what you do, eventually the cosmos above will begin to burn out, just as it did the first time you were here. As darkness swallows reality itself, you will wake with the visceral memory of your world corrupting and breaking apart.

SEARCHING (OLD CHARACTERS)
Soon after the dreams begin, it will become clear that the Aion NPCs of either sect are also aware of what's happening. For those in Achamoth and Greentruth, the imminent arrival of new Aions will become a matter of official discussion. All able Aions will be called upon for their aid, in whatever way they can offer. Getting to the shrines themselves will be easily accomplished via teleportation. What's would be more complicated is ferrying any new arrivals back to a secure location. Thankfully, this is something both sects have already prepared for.

All characters will have the opportunity to acquire a 'returning stone' if they don't already have one. In all cases, this will amount to an amulet made of the same shimmering material as the shrine monuments, though the stylization differs between the Pleroma and the Kenoma. While regular Aion teleportation can bring you to any of the shrines you know the sigil and location of, a returning stone is magically programmed to bring its wearer back to a specific destination to which it is attuned. Normally, these stones will only be able to store enough energy for one 'return' a month, but it turns out that the ambient power created by the shrines being active will temporarily super charge them. Though it's not guaranteed, this means they may generate enough energy to perform multiple returns for TDM purposes. More information about returning stones can be found on the powers page.

Spare returning stones will be issued to all Aions so that they can be used to bring back anyone they collect, as it's possible to bring someone alongside you if they are also wearing a returning stone. Where your stone leads will depend on your sect.

PLEROMA
Tehri will be the one to supply returning stones, based out of Greentruth. She will not travel to Godsblood to deliver returning stones to those that have not visited Greentruth, but it can be assumed that Greentruth's visitors can pass them along to anyone who has been staying in the city. The returning stones are set to bring them to a secure location beneath the water of Godsblood's coast. From there, new arrivals will have to be allowed to rest and then brought up into the city when they're ready.

Greentruth is limited in its resources, but it will attempt to send troops to the Innocent, Seeker, Wanderer, and Firebrand shrines, all of which are close to the forest. Compared to the last attempt, these troops are a bit better armored. Meanwhile, bolstered by recent events in Godsblood, bands of Resistance members and guerrilla fighters will turn up at the Artisan and Sovereign shrines. The Resistance members will work willingly alongside with the Pleroma Aions, but the guerrilla fighters seem to have their own priorities and that is mostly that they have a beef with the Achamites. These reinforcements will struggle against powered Aions, but they might be able to delay any troops sent by Achamoth or Hylici.

KENOMA
Xishen will be handing out returning stones to all Kenoma the day after the dreams begin for the Aions that don't already have one. She'll explain how to use them, and state that the Regent expects for them to head to the shrines once they become fully active. The Kenoma will have whatever mundane weapons or supplies they need at their disposal for this mission, along with minimal Achamite reinforcements. Due to injuries and death in both Godsblood and Venera, many are in recovery or on their return to Achamoth. She'll reiterate not to rely too heavily on them; after all, only the Aions are able to quickly move between the shrines and at the Citadel. The regular troops will have to be deployed by river or by land, and mobilizing them will take time. They will feasible be able to reach all of the shrines to some degree or another, but will more easily populate the shrines of the Martyr, Celebrant, Lover, Champion, Visionary, Sovereign, and Firebrand.

The Hylicians will be called to fill in the ranks of the diminished Achamite troops. They follow the orders that they are given but are very standoffish otherwise, even more than usual for them. Xishen herself says she will be traveling to the shrines and the Kenoma will be expected to communicate their movements to her as they work. Dionys remains in Achamoth to 'keep watch'. All Kenoma Aions will be given a familiar vial of black sludge, and are instructed to feed it to any Aions they capture at the shrines. It will cause the same effects it did in the cavern, though it will resolve in a few days rather than a week.

RETURNED (ALL CHARACTERS)
New characters that are found a the shrines will be brought back to one of two lodestones, depending on which sect they are taken by. This will be accomplished by their escort putting a 'returning stone' around their neck that will enable them to be teleported to a secure area in their sect's territory. It is advised for your character to be taken by whichever sect you'd like them to end up in.

TO THE PLEROMA
In a dazzling flash of psychedelic light, you will find yourself brought to the Pleroma's lodestone: a monolithic rock set in the center of temple-like ruins. The entire cavern is hidden away beneath the ocean waves, just outside of Godsblood, and the ceiling itself is comprised of nothing but a barrier of water, as if held back from filling the space by some unknown force. The waters surrounding the lodestone are exactly body temperature, with swarms of tiny, violently iridescent fish darting through it. Crabs that look as if they're made of pure, clear crystal wander the sparkling, sandy shores.

There isn't much here in the way of accommodations, but it's comfortable enough that the new arrivals brought in by the Pleroma can take a moment to catch their breath. Some relatively plain but assorted new clothing will have been brought to the cavern to make sure they are actually clothed, as well as blankets and basic food items. It's a good time to ask your questions, or if you are an established Pleroma, to help out your freshly arrived peers. After all, their welcome at the shrine may have been a confusing one.

New arrivals will be permitted to leave the lodestone's temple when they are ready. Unfortunately, the only ways out of these place are through your choice of either swimming through pockets of water that eventually lead to the surface, or by spelunking through a series of tunnels to make your way the cliff faces near the city of Godsblood. More information about the city itself can be found on the setting page, though it would be preferable to keep TDM interactions to the lodestone area. As characters emerging from the shrines will start our as Untouched (more info about attunements here) they will not be permitted entry into Greentruth until they have attuned to Pleroma.

TO THE KENOMA
As your returning stone activates, you will feel yourself thrust into a suffocating void, only to emerge just as quickly somewhere else. The most pressing thing on the minds of anyone taken by the Kenoma will be the vial of pitch black sludge they are forced to drink, whether it is before or after their arrival. Maybe their 'escort' from the shrine gave it to them, or perhaps another Kenoma does soon after they arrive. If not, one of the Achamite cultists wandering around definitely will. Dedicated servants to the Regent's will as they are, they are not afraid to gang up on the vulnerable new arrivals and force it down their throats.

Once in your mouth, the potion will slither down your throat as if it's a living thing. The effect takes hold quickly: as this darkness creeps through your insides, it will embolden your darkest and most despair inducing emotions, plaguing your thoughts with the worst sorrows of your life. What's worst, it simultaneously seems to awaken some form of enhanced psychic empathy within you, both projecting your thoughts for others to hear, and allowing you to receive those of the others around you in kind. Black ooze will begin to seep from orifices, or the space around your shard. The effects of this contamination bring out your worst, and its recipients will be forced to live with these effects until they accept the force corrupting them into their souls.

This world is not good enough, a voice speaks to your through the Kenoma. This suffering you feel, the cruelty that has birthed this darkness in you... it is simply the rot that is consuming this existence. A better universe awaits, one forged by your own hand, and all you need do is first bring about this broken reality's end.

How long this goes on will depend on how long the characters is able to fight it. Acceptance of the Kenoma can come as quickly as immediately, if your character is inclined towards it, or it could be drawn out to take a few days. In the meantime, they will have to stay in the barren halls surrounding the Regent's lodestone, and will not be permitted to exit into the greater Citadel as the current Kenoma are. All that will immediately be offered to them down there are stone slabs that can be used as beds and formless white robes that reach down past their knees.

Of course, that doesn't mean the characters that are already of the Kenoma can't do something about that. If they desire it, they will be able to bring food or other supplies to those suffering with their Kenoma infections, and it will be equally within their power to try anything from bullying them into accepting to lovebombing them. Once a character accepts the Kenoma and attunes to it, they will be permitted to leave, but for the sake of the TDM interactions should be kept to the lodestone area.

QUESTIONS
Is this TDM canon?
Mostly! It's part of an in-game event. However, only threads with new players that app and are accepted will be considered game canon. Threads between old characters will all be canon, but threads involving new characters that don't apply or aren't accepted will either need to be tweaked to remove their involvement or made non-canon. New characters will also be able to decide TDM threads aren't canon if they end up changing directions.

Who can toplevel on this post?
Anyone, whether they are a new character or a current one. However, we do ask for current players to do their best to tag new characters. If you are bringing in a new character and want a current character to bring them into your sect of choice, post your request here! ICly, current characters are fighting to claim new arrivals, but it's up to the player of new characters where they ultimately end up going.

When is this TDM taking place chronologically?
The beginning of August. The shrines will be active and forming Aions during that time. The dreams will start around the 29th of July. All current Aions will be able to sense when it's time for the new arrivals to start emerging.

What are the shrines like?
Every shrine is comprised of the crystal-filled cavern character emerge inside and then the massive statue symbolizing the relevant Legacy built on top. More information about each shrine can be found in the "Aion Shrine" section of the setting page.

Are everyone's homeworlds really gone?
That's a complicated issue, and while the fate of their world is not without hope, they may certainly get the impression its been destroyed from the dream they had. Alternatively, they may refuse to believe what they felt and attempt to dismiss it as only a vision. More about this situation will be revealed as the game goes on.

Can I only experience one end of the dream sequence prompt?
New characters may experience one ending, both endings, or neither. If they experience both they will struggle to recall which came first or which feels the most 'true' to them, as both will simultaneously be the thought they are reborn with. If your character refuses to pursue either path they can simply linger in the middle until the infinite worlds above them start being extinguished one by one, eventually expelling them into darkness in a similar style to the light prompt. Which dreams they experience will not dictate their initial sect affiliation.

Is it possible to pull another character back from the end of the light or darkness dreams?
Yes! If your character is able to resist the pull of either end, they will have the chance to try to pull another character back from the edge of the abyss or the edge of oneness. Whether or not they succeed is entirely up to the other character, though.

Do you come out of the chrysalis wet?
For most intents and purposes it's the same experience as hatching out of a real butterfly chrysalis, so yes, a bit.

How does attunement to the Pleroma or Kenoma work for new characters?
More information about sect attunements can be read on their dedicated info page, but in summary: when new characters are brought to Horos, they will be in the state of being "Untouched" meaning they are not attuned to either sect. By the end of their first month in game it is expected they will either attune to Pleroma or Kenoma, though for those taken by the Kenoma's forces, the transition will be forced within the first few days. If taken in by the Pleroma, it may take then some time to attune to Pleroma, depending on the strength of their spirit, but it could also happen almost instantly if they are allowed to. How quickly it happens will depend on how strongly they align with the Pleroma's traits. Characters who have been taken by the Pleroma but that remain Untouched will not be allowed into Greentruth until their attunement to Pleroma is complete.

Can a character taken by one side end up attuning to the sect of the opposite one?
This is theoretically possible, yes: a person taken by the Kenoma could potentially resist the Kenoma's call, and someone taken by the Pleroma could end up falling to the Kenoma while staying with them. Generally, though, we recommend that you have your character be taken by whichever sect you want to end up in, as doing a switcheroo will cause narrative complications that might bog their introduction down in plotting that will need to be done with the mods. It can happen, but it is not to be done lightly!

heavybreaths: (Conversing)

[personal profile] heavybreaths 2022-08-01 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
Darth Vader.

[He rarely, if ever, has to introduce himself. Usually an officer does this, and always with the flourishing bevy of titles...Dark Lord of the Sith, Regent of Mustafar, The Emperor's Right Hand and others. None matter. He is simply who he is, especially here.]

How often are newcomers...hatched...in these temples?
bingos: (pic#15580529)

[personal profile] bingos 2022-08-01 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
[ For all that she's intent on cleaning up and making a face at her hair when she touches it, Miyako is listening. Maybe the whole arriving in a new world isn't entirely the biggest surprise or newest one to her, but it's also a sign that something is wrong in her experience.

There's something she can't place on why a Regent makes her skin crawl or why aion makes her uncomfortable- So she finds herself asking: ]
What would a Regent want with me?

[ She knows it's a word similar to a monarch - like kaiser. Maybe that's why she's instinctively upset. But the man isn't being unkind (and she's not gonna be ungrateful for anyone who just gave her clothes -yet).

Still, she's not too aware of the question and why it'd be weird. Neither is Hawkmon. Who, given he's mostly plummage, even at a glance Childe can see is shardless. Weird, right? ]


He was. Why, what's supposed to happen?
baltimores: (033; I’m not back)

crashes the party,, hello nice to meet you

[personal profile] baltimores 2022-08-01 05:27 am (UTC)(link)
[ Oh, fuck.

The first thing Amos sees when he arrives at the shrine are six angelic wings, in all of their massive white and feathery glory, and it instantly transports him back to when that had happened to him. For a second he's stuck, frozen in— not terror but—

And then he realizes their owner is holding someone — someone new, someone not attuned, someone completely vulnerable to not just being taken away, corrupted by the Pleroma but by Innocence itself, a nightmare of a dual threat, and Amos finds himself rushing forward. ]


Let go of her!

[ It's a bark of a cry, part order and part desperation. As he rushes forward Estinien and Aerith both should feel themselves grow heavier, the force of gravity magnified on their bodies as Amos aims to stop them from going anywhere, weigh down Estinien's wings, hopefully force him to let Aerith go so he can't touch her anymore— ]

Something's got him all fucked up — you need to get away from him, now!

[ His words are for Aerith now; he hardly recognizes Estinien, something familiar and dangerous there, but this is so much more pressing. Amos may not have the full picture of what's happened with Estinien. He only knows what he knows, and the urgency in his voice is real. He isn't just saying shit for the sake of it; the sight of Estinien as he currently is is a horrific one, and one that brings up memories of something he never wants to experience again.

He'll do his best to lighten gravity's pull on Aerith specifically, but he isn't refined enough yet to have that meaningful an impact. Still, the most important thing — don't let him take off with her. ]
salvageable: (pic#15332068)

[personal profile] salvageable 2022-08-01 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ Sorry, he's in the middle of a fucking panic attack, please hold. His breathing grows ragged once he remembers to actually breathe and he grabs at his chest, fingers bunching up the fabric of his cloak there. He can't take his eyes off her, doesn't bother moving even when she grabs at his clothes. He's frozen to the spot and it's like the whole world is distorting before his very eyes.

Already crouched like he is, it's not a far drop when his knees crash down on the pavement, one hand bracing himself on the floor while the other he'd had at his chest comes up, fingers trembling as they hook themselves over the top of his mask to heed her demand.

—And then he stops. He stops because just past her shoulder, he sees people turning to look their way. They're on the streets of Godsblood and sure to attract attention this way, and if she's seen with him, then they'll associate her with him, and then... and then...

His hand falls away from his face and drops down to where she has a hold of him. Like this, holding her wrist in such a tentative way in fear that she might just disappear altogether, he feels something inside of him shatter into pieces. She's real. He's touching her and she's not going anywhere. ]


I can't.

[ Not here, not in public like this. He has to protect her. So with shaking legs, he tries to push himself back up to his feet, only to drop back down immediately. All the strength's left him and he feels so weak, so lost. Han Sooyoung. In this place. She should be back with the others, so then why? Why is she here? ]
affal: (186)

[personal profile] affal 2022-08-01 05:33 am (UTC)(link)
( ooc: ;w; thank you!! ugh i adore frostnova... my heart bleeds for reunion found fam )

( he wouldn't have expected a single act of generosity to buy him her good will and trust — that she looks at him as if he might still end up a potential threat to her only earns her more of his respect. it would be just like a demon to try to disarm someone's suspicion before taking full advantage of it, right? while that's not necessarily his aim at this moment, he has always valued those uncanny enough to find themselves reborn into a new world, only to meet it with an appraising gaze and a level head. he can't even say he had had such presence of mind, or at least not at first.

he gives her a kind, if not somewhat thin, smile. )


Only of a sort.

( given what he had slowly come to understand of the Aions gathered in horos and the myriad disparate worlds they all came from, there were probably countless iterations of hell, each with their own climates, politics, landscapes, and rules. perhaps there is one out there for her, one that she dreamed was the perfect summation of her life: a cold tomb, locked in ice.

refreshing, how it bucked the stereotype.

ah, but how right she is. he doesn't lend voice to it, but there's something in the way that his eyelids fall heavier over his strange eyes as she speaks to the grimness of fate — yes, as a young life which had only ever found new depths to plummet into whenever rock bottom felt like it was being reached, he can understand that sentiment. so, to hell with it, he would eventually come to say. the Kenoma is an easy conclusion to come to when every opportunity for life and hope given to you ends up withering to ash as soon as you hold it in your hands. )


No, miss, but I've been traveling, and some of the places I've been going are quite cold indeed. ( not the shrine of the martyr, sunken in its desolate crater, but the shrine of the visionary and the sovereign, where the air could get thin, could be quite brisk even despite the season. )

Might I ask your name?
uproared: (been thinking about a lot of things)

god. you shouldn't be but thank you

[personal profile] uproared 2022-08-01 05:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ See, she hadn't thought that far ahead. Mordred pauses, as if trying to come up with a good answer, then quickly gives up with a huff. ]

Perhaps it won't, but I can't stand waiting in this wretched place any longer. I was a knight, you know — I deserve better than such poor treatment!

[ While she looks (and sounds) like an entitled child throwing a fit, something about her demeanor suggests said entitlement is... not justified, obviously, but not without basis, as if she might be telling the truth. (About being a knight, not deserving better. She doesn't deserve shit.) ]
kablams: (↖008.)

jinx | arcane | lover

[personal profile] kablams 2022-08-01 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
i. 💣 dream a little dream (the darkness); (cw warning: mental illness)
[ for someone contemplating the all-encompassing void of time and space and that decidedly uncomfy feeling of entropy, Jinx looks strangely... calm. no, wait; curious might be the better word for it, like she's looking at a puzzle and trying to figure out how the pieces go to make it settle just right. she's got a pretty good handle on herself here -- or... maybe it just seems that way at first glance.

the thing that throws off the illusion that all is chill and cool and copasetic in this (oppressive, threatening) dreamscape is the way she suddenly tilts her head as if listening to something -- someone? yeah, it's someone, because she's offering a haughty and immediate-- ]


Nono, you just... you heard her wrong! She wouldn't say that. That doesn't sound like her at all. Just... [ sweeping her arms, angrily, as if swatting someone off of her and backing away-- ] --just be quiet, I'm trying to think. Can't you let me think?!

[ Jinx shakes her head in irritable dismissal, but when she goes to turn away from whatever -- whoever -- it is that she's addressing you can't seem to see, she bumps right into you. --you, someone she wasn't expecting to see. someone she definitely didn't realize was there.

she looks at you for a moment in surprise -- and then more intensely, as if she's seeing through you, leaning in and getting reaaaal close, your face mere centimeters from hers (unless you're too tall for this treatment - it might take a bit out of it if she's peering from your boobs, but like. whatever, it's fine).

...seems like she's looking for something. distractedly: ]


Great. So, what -- who're you supposed to be, huh? Are they just letting anyone in here these days?


ii. 💣 lover's shrine; (cw warning: potential violence & mentions of mental illness)
[ cocooned in her chrysalis just like so many others, a girl shifts; writhes; struggles against the cracks formed in the outer shell of her encasement. she is digging, prying at the fracturing substance again and again and again --

until finally, it gives -- spilling shards of tinkling geode to the shrine floor, the wet drip of the fluid within accompanied by a thud as she clamors bodily out of her prison to hit the ground in a collapse. Jinx isn't exactly graceful about it, chest heaving as she sucks in air like an animal, eyes wide and far too long hair sticking to both her body getting caught in the jagged remains of her rebirthing.

shivering and disoriented, she hauls herself upright with a piece of sharp, uneven rock clutched in her clumsy fingers, ready to brandish it as a weapon. her eyes are just short of wild, flattering manically across the shrine's interior--

uh, maybe like... approach with caution? or get shanked, whatever floats your boat. ]


iii. 💣 wildcard;
[ ooc: got something not included in the above? feel free to PM me for a custom starter or if you want to plot out anything!! 🥰 ]
wavetrain: <user name=animatedwings site=twitter.com> (pic#15836499)

[personal profile] wavetrain 2022-08-01 05:37 am (UTC)(link)
Tsunami frowns slightly. (If Syrlya's appearance surprises her, she doesn't show it; to her eyes his appearance isn't really more different from that of what she would have considered a "normal" human than a SeaWing's is from an IceWing's.)

"Huh," she says. She pauses, looking up at the lodestone, before apparently deciding to ask, "Isn't it... dangerous, to make something like this?"
uproared: (i won't do what i'm told)

i can't believe you made boba do your dirty work

[personal profile] uproared 2022-08-01 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
The hell does it look like?

[ If he takes another glance at her, she seems completely unbothered by her own nudity, and far more concerned with shaking the hatching goop out of her hair like a wet dog (sorry for the cultural appropriation, Eustace). ]

This stuff is gross... [ Then, in Eustace's direction: ] Hey, give me something to clean this crap off with. I don't care what — your clothes will do, if you don't have anything else.
zauneyete: (Oh you)

[personal profile] zauneyete 2022-08-01 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
[ Silco lifted a single eyebrow. See, here he was, trying to do the reasonable thing, and talk about this, but the man was already swept back to panic. He stood, this time, but even still. Silco could have left, but... he was rather certain that the Regent would not look kindly, if he were to just go, when he was all alone, having cornered this sad, anxious, confused man.

And Silco was, above all, interested in the cause.
]

Leave you all alone? By yourself? [ He almost looked aghast -- fake though it was. ] You do understand, that at least, we are here to collect people like you. Make sure you're not simply left alone in a cave?

[ It would be easy, but Silco didn't do things easy. He could just grab him, and teleport him back, but where was the fun? This man could be convinced, if he just breathed normally for a bit, and calmed down. ]

Instead, why don't you ask questions? I can assure you, I have answers. [ See? He's even reasonable, Bruno. ]
coerthantorment: (20)

[personal profile] coerthantorment 2022-08-01 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
[The moment that Estinien notices Amos's approach, he attempts to take flight. He makes it a short distance off of the ground before the gravity grows stifling - he might have been able to make it with his own weight, but not with an additional passenger. He lands a few moments later, crouching with the additional burden that has been thrust upon him.

It's hard not to be distraught, knowing how delicate this is. If Amos accuses him of being a monster... how would she know he was wrong? Not least if he fights back in the way that so many see as unseemly?]


'Tis one of the Kenoma- pray, my affliction will not harm you... but their master will, if you return with him...

[He is quick to caution, shifting across the ground to try to walk her away from Amos's approach. Could she escape on her own, if he set her down? Or would another Kenoma be lying in wait? He snarls.]

Leave us!
fallingsand: (33;)

[personal profile] fallingsand 2022-08-01 05:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ Asking the man who was nearly almost always sixty seconds away from freaking out to calm down was going to be a very large ask here. He much preferred the idea of being left alone, sad, anxious, confused, and, to his greatest dislike, naked (wait isn't there a tv show about this) in a cave.

To what end, Bruno hadn't thought that far. To lay here listlessly until something came along to end him, he supposed. In any case, he remained where he was, for the time being, relying on the crystal he'd grabbed ahold of to keep himself up on his own two feet.
]

Questions? Questions about what? You already answered what I needed to. To know. No one knows what destroyed our homes. There's nothing to do. Nothing... [ What else could there even be to ask? Aside from, well, he did glance back over his shoulder to eye Silco once more. ] Why are you collecting people?
rosethorns: (06)

[personal profile] rosethorns 2022-08-01 05:56 am (UTC)(link)
Good to have options, I suppose.

[A quick tilt of her head and a teasing smile. The remark is offered genuinely nonetheless—if you’re going to find yourself in a whole new world, isn’t it better to have a wealth of possibilities before you? Figuring out where to start is the important part. More seriously, she continues:]

Truthfully, this whole situation, [she gestures broadly around them] is quite a lot to take in. What is it like out there, around… Greentruth and Godsblood?
bingos: (00_0005_92179993_p10)

[personal profile] bingos 2022-08-01 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
[ For someone who's answer was so objectively certain, Miyako listens intently. She lacks any real judgement right now - not in this world of free thought and dreams.

She wonders, fleetingly, if 'light' as a concept was simply the reverse of darkness in her eyes. Light is what gave them power, allowed life to thrive. This was something she knew for a fact. But she also knew that a being of light - Homeostasis - was quick for an ends justifies the means willingness of destruction. It's not something she can agree with. And in this, she doesn't disagree with him. ]


It's amazing how many worlds there are out there. [ Her response is surprisingly quiet for her nature, not that Emets knows of it: ] I've been to a world, The Dark Ocean... It's probably really similar in a way. Where the world is nothing but darkness and it's har not to think about those things you don't want to. It feeds on it.

[ Her experiences had been brief, in visiting and the interaction with - But it's not one you forget. Not when it corrupted a person she calls friends and very nearly killed other kids.

She says it evenly, not an attempt of an argument, and continues on just as easily: ]


I think the world needs both. It needs balance. But that's not an option here. [ There is no middle road after all. ] ...Someone once said that hope is holding onto the light in your heart even when it's darkest, so that's why I choose it.

[ She turns to him expectantly - not the face of someone who wants praise or anything of that notion. It's curiosity, what does he define darkness as then? ]
rosethorns: (05)

[personal profile] rosethorns 2022-08-01 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
[No, she certainly didn’t want to stay down here, naked or otherwise. Part of her immediately starts debating whether she should reach for another chunk of crystal the moment she let that first one fly, as useless as a tool that would be. Thankfully, the man who stumbles upon her has the decency to cover his eyes the moment he realizes what he’s seeing. Some of the tension seizing her eases, just marginally.

That offered cloak, however, just might be the most wonderful thing she’s seen in some time.]


Yes, that should suffice.

[She moves to stand, but hesitates a moment—running naked towards a stranger is not normally the brightest of ideas. But she is cold and exhausted and she knows there’s not much to be gained by dithering here.]

I’m making my way over, so no peeking now!

[He hasn’t given her any reason to doubt him in these few scant moments, but it doesn’t hurt to be firm. She’ll make her way over towards him, stepping carefully amongst the crystals, and will move to take the cloak and quickly drape it over herself, should he hand it over with no fuss.]

((Wonderful, thank you!))
chronosynthesis: (❖ Well of Eternity)

[personal profile] chronosynthesis 2022-08-01 06:08 am (UTC)(link)
"I suppose if you didn't know what you were doing," he shrugs a shoulder, utterly unperturbed by the magic underground dome. "But this place is stable and has been around for a long time, so I doubt that's the case."
dendritic: (yeah! now you really made it)

[personal profile] dendritic 2022-08-01 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ he picks the stinkiest person in the damn room.

whether it's because zero has a natural odor about her (she does: blood and death seems to stick to her no matter how hard she's scrubbed her skin) or because she's drenched in sweat and upset is up to him to decide. maybe it's both, in truth, but it's not like she leaves much to the imagination. zero hates company, it's true, but she doesn't turn down food. she grabs a whole loaf of bread and some meat, staring at him like she dares him to try and take it back.

she huffs; a small, bitter chuckle. ]


Firecrotch wasn't lying. You fuckers go out of your way.

[ zero eats like a barbarian, wolfing the loaf down in big, unladylike bites. she genuinely sees nothing wrong with this. ] So, you drink their poison and they reward you like a dog... must make for complacent soldiers.
zauneyete: (just dad things)

swoops in with dad powers

[personal profile] zauneyete 2022-08-01 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ There is no hope, here. Silco has two things that motivate him more than anything here. One, is that Zaun is gone. Turned to ash and powder, to nothing more than stardust in the sky. He cannot even locate where Runeterra could be in the universe from here, but he knows that it is gone. Perhaps it's because the dream told him so, but what other hope was there? Two, was that the people from Zaun were gone -- person was gone, and Silco had nothing but contempt for a world that had neither of these.

But still -- even still -- he travels the shrines. Oh, he's supposed to. He's supposed to flit back, and forth, and find them all, and bring them back, make them drink the foul black drink, and bring them to Achamoth. Yes, that's really why he's doing it, but every shrine, every time, he looks. He cannot help it. Even a horrid man like Silco hopes, even if he knows it's not going to happen.

It's the shrine of the lover... and he's not quite certain that he isn't seeing things, but no, that's not him. His shoes, they scuff on the floor, audibly at a small girl on the ground, and he's pretty sure she's trembling. His fingers did tremble, and his feet moved of his own accord. He didn't even really put it together, that he was moving until he's down on the ground with her. He doesn't even pay attention to the rock in her hand, or the fluid around them, the stain of the on his pants from kneeling next to her, or the fact that he'd already taken off his coat.
]

Shh, Jinx. [ Coat? He's already trying to drape it over her shoulders. ] It's alright.

[ Well, it wasn't, but that didn't matter this second. The destruction of the universe could wait, Silco had someone more important to focus on. ]

[personal profile] expiera 2022-08-01 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
[Ah.

What was once so weak and feeble is suddenly animated with life, with hope. This woman who must have gone through a lifetime of suffering, who must have been hurt and used countless times over, probably harmed others too in turn, does have a wish, and it's with heart-wrenching clarity that Ciel comes to understand why the shrine of the Innocent is where this woman had awoken in. Carmine wants something wrenchingly ordinary, mundane, yet it's also something that's completely out of her reach. A gut feeling, or assuming from experience? It doesn't matter. She listens, because she recognizes that she's being told an impossible dream that is beautiful precisely for its nostalgic simplicity. A familiar and bittersweet taste of something long discarded and buried, something that she can never permit herself to look back upon. But she does understand its priceless value and admire it for what it is, especially coming from someone else.

Her chest heaves, and she finds herself squeezing a little harder. It's as good a hug now, isn't it?]


It won't be quiet, and it won't be peaceful.

[Horos is at war.]

But I can take you somewhere with children, and a well-stocked kitchen. The city's orphans are many and lively, they do have big appetites and could use an extra pair of eyes over them.

[But that, too, is the truth. The Regent cares for all of Achamoth's children, this woman can spend her free time accompanying them.]

Would you come with me?

[Tools are supposed to be flexible.]
dendritic: (oh cinderella they aren't sluts like you)

[personal profile] dendritic 2022-08-01 06:16 am (UTC)(link)
Then I kill them. [ it's punctuated with a shrug; "no big deal." she's been killing for a long time. one more is nothing to zero. ]

Besides... It's not for me. [ she motions as if to throw the crystal at him, but her grip stays firm. it's a momentary fake out, done more to measure him than anything. he's too calm. ]

I'm sparing you the embarrassment of crawling back to your little destruction bed emptyhanded, moron. [ zero drags her free hand down along her face, wipes the goo from her check and lets it splatter to the ground unceremoniously. if nothing else, however: she's listening. ]

"Purging sin," huh...
scarabwings: (serious)

Layla El-Faouly | Moon Knight | Firebrand

[personal profile] scarabwings 2022-08-01 06:17 am (UTC)(link)
I. Dreaming
The first step is the easiest. Memory follows, in fits and starts: the glint of a curved blade, the lines of a beloved face, a broken god imprisoned in broken flesh, an embattled city. By the time she thinks to look up, Layla remembers all that brought her here. The sight of whole galaxies spinning out above her is nearly enough to drive it from her mind again, and she sucks in a sharp breath, struck both by awe and by profound regret at being here alone.

Or not alone, quite. She becomes aware of others moving past or stopping as she has to watch the cosmos, becomes aware of the diverging paths, light and dark. She stands poised at the crossroads for a long moment, searching, then finally turns and sets her feet back on the path of light.

It feels like homecoming. Like her father's voice, like baking sun and cool nights and ancient walls thick with the scent of petrichor. Like bright music and the shape of a dozen cities and the span of her husband's hand across her back. Like a thousand things, big and small, that shape her place in the world, fragments glimpsed by proximity or reflected in the slightly crooked curve of her smile as she takes in a familiar stranger and asks, "I know you, don't I?"

II. Rebirth
Layla isn't certain how long she struggles to break free of the capsule imprisoning her. Her limbs seem to move only a millimetre at a time, like she's moving through taffy in slow motion. Then, suddenly, there's the sensation of cool air against her fingertips, and she scrabbles for purchase, forcing the opening wider and wider until it finally gives way, and she spills to the ground with barely enough presence of mind to get her hands up before she collides face first with the stone of the cavern floor.

It's a moment before she musters enough energy to push herself up to her knees and take stock of her surroundings, and the beauty of the crystal formations is marred by the realization that she had been trapped in one of them. That there are, in fact, other humanoid shapes still trapped in others.

She searches the ground around her, and snatches up one of the longer slivers of crystal left by her escape, biting back a hiss as the edge of it nicks her skin before she finds a better grip. She manages, barely, to get to her feet without having to support herself on anything, and starts for the nearest apparently-occupied crystal, jaw set in determination.

III. Returned (Pleroma)
Layla's first order of business upon arriving in the lodestone chamber is to avail herself of some of the offered clothing. Her second is to interrogate anyone who stands still long enough about the reason behind her abrupt recruitment, about how she ended up here in the first place, about where here is.

(Not - yet - about the strange dream that had snared her before she woke to find herself imprisoned in crystal, the one that had ended in the death of everything she had ever known.)

Eventually, she runs out of steam, or out of patience, and can be found standing at the edge of the water, studying the lodestone and the tumbled ruins that surround it. When she hears the crunch of footsteps behind her, she asks without turning, "Do you think this place was built to harness magic, or did that come later?"

IV. Wildcard
((OOC: Feel free to hit me with something else, or PM me for plotting.))
chronosynthesis: (❖ Master of Fragmentation)

[personal profile] chronosynthesis 2022-08-01 06:21 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not, I'm not... [He holds it gingerly between his fingers, so she can easily pluck it from his grasp. Up closer, it's a lot more obvious that he's not human. The hand she claims it from is extremely pale green, and waxy like plant stems.] Tell me when I can look.
pyojeol: (pic#15846855)

me belatedly realizing to put up a spoiler warning for orv

[personal profile] pyojeol 2022-08-01 06:22 am (UTC)(link)
[It can't be, Sooyoung thinks at the same time she hears the words 'I can't'. She watches, frozen as the person in front of her (who she knows just has to be --) gasps for air and falls to their knees and holds her so tentatively, as if doubting her existence.

Which is fair, because she's still having trouble processing his --]


You...

[she bites off the end, lapses into silence as her hands start to shake a little too in return. she doesn't have predictive plagiarism anymore, nothing to tell her all the million ways this could go wrong or right.

but she still has her eyes and she can put two and two together. dokja in disguise, meaning that he doesn't want to be found.]


-- God, you're completely smashed, aren't you? [her voice, loud and high-pitched and maybe a bit too frenetic] I thought I told you to stop drinking before five...!

[she belatedly realizes that she has no idea how they record time here, but you know what, that's fine. she crouches down with him, speedily gathering books while shoving some into his arms]

Come on, get up! We're going -- home!

[if only so she can sling both arms around his and somehow yank him to standing. the look in her eyes is beyond complicated, too many thoughts and feelings that she can't acknowledge at the moment, but she manages to glare an approximation of "get up right now or so help me god kim dokja im going to kick your ass"

hopefully whoever's watching this scene will get bored of the display, or at least ignore it. just another drunk and their wonderful, magnanimous best friend helping them home!!]
rosethorns: (04)

[personal profile] rosethorns 2022-08-01 06:26 am (UTC)(link)
[She shrugs, staring deep into the void as if searching for some sort of answer. She’s not sure she likes what she sees (or perhaps more suitably, what she doesn’t see), but the longer she stares at it, the less wrong it begins to feel.]

Ceaseless struggle? The endless search for security in life?

[With a sigh, her attention drifts back to him.]

Why do they always seem so out of reach, no matter how hard we fight to see an end to it?

[The songstress has spent five years breaking her heart bit by bit as war subsumed her life. Willingly so, despite everything. She made a valiant effort to hold fast to her compassion through it all, but the heart can only take so much, couldn’t it?]
uproared: (saying to someone)

[personal profile] uproared 2022-08-01 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
[ Oh, big mistake. The less someone wants to be annoyed, the more she wants to annoy them, and so bothering Garrett instantly takes priority over her original ""plan"". Instead of leaving him alone, she attempts to follow his gaze, her nose scrunching when she fails to see anything worthwhile. ]

The hell's so interesting? [ If he doesn't immediately answer, she'll wave her hand in front of his face. ] Hey.